Ok, let's talk about how my little starter gear fix took a left turn into my retirement savings.
And while we're at it, I will confess to a mistake I made that led to a lot of unecessary work and extra time and worry. So the whole point of this little exercise was to replace my starter gear that was jumping out of gear on me when I hit the button. This starter gear repair kit is $48.76, of course getting to that little gear necessitated acquiring a bunch of new tools, which I will get into later.
I could not make up my mind as to whether or not to replace the clutch friction plates while I was in there, I was indecisive and finally decided to wait and see what they looked like when I got in there. Well I started measuring them and they were close to replacement parameters, so I decided what the hell, get new ones.so I ordered a set of EBC friction plates off of eBay. They seem like good quality and a decent price.
Well I got caught up in an upgrade fever and I had all these voices in my head. 5Twins says he always replaces the clutch springs, MaxPete really likes the new Allen head clutch pack screws from Mikes, Robin thought his upgrade to the superior needle bearing from Mikes was well worth it. Those all sound like great ideas! Cha Ching Cha Ching Cha Ching!
Ok, here's where I'm gonna come clean about something, I don't have to admit this, but I would hope to save some poor sap some grief down the road. Ummm....I didn't just open up my oil pump to see what's doin. I wanted to apply paint stripper to the side cover gasket for removal, and I use this orange thick citrus gel. Well I didn't take precautions to stuff paper towels into the oil passageways and I glugged a bunch of that stuff down the passageway closest to the oil pump. I took it apart to clean it up. There! I said it. Don't be stupid! The whole story is outlined here on another thread.
http://www.xs650.com/threads/questions-about-my-oil-pump.50852/
But hey while I was in there I decided to fix a small oil leak, my tach drive mount/seal.
That's the new factory replacement o ring from Boats.Net, and inside , after you remove that threaded insert is another seal that I ordered from them too. To drive that seal in I used a 9mm socket on an extension and put a little grease around the seal and gently drove it in.
Then re installed it after my endless oil pump mess.
Since I had the cover off, I might as well make it purdy, so it got buffed and the letters painted. Hey as Jim says, the Devils in the details!
So now I'm getting read to get going on my clutch install. I've had my friction plates soaking in oil for a couple days now, so following a nice tip by 5Twins I decided to take the sharp edges off of my friction plates. I bought a brass wire wheel for my bench grinder and smoothed them right up!
Alright , I've got my theatre of operation all laid out and ready to go. I might not be much of a mechanic but I've got really good organizational skills!
I start layering in all my clutch steel plates and friction plates.
Now I put the pressure plate on making sure to align my two marks.
And then I insert all my new parts, springs, keepers, and Allen head bolts.
Nothing left to do but put my new gasket on that I've soaked in oil, and put my side cover back on. Being sure to remember to replace the shim first on the kickstart shaft. All buttoned up and Bobs your Uncle!
Now, as I said at the start of this story, let's talk about how a little starter gear fix wound up costing so much.
For sure I bought parts that weren't absolutely necessary. I wanted to upgrade components, and I had to buy ( ok maybe wanted to buy) some specialized tools. Here's the breakdown.
Starter gear repair kit. $48.76
EBC clutch plates. $66.31
EBC CSK2 springs. $9.49
Clutch spring screw set. $36.94
Cover gasket. $11.75
Fish scale. $3.95
Vernier calipers. $12.09 JUNK!
Needle bearing. $18.97
29mm socket. $10
Tach drive seals. $15
Universal clutch holding tool $20
For a grand total of. $253. 25 Yikes!
So was it worth it? Mixed I'd say. Messing with that oil pump was a huge pain. The starter works every time like it should, but isn't much quieter. Clutch works perfectly. I've got 27 brand new pieces floating around under that side cover , so I was listening VERY carefully after starting. And it sounds.....busy. Lots of mechanical noise I'm hoping is just new parts settling in. It starts easily, idles well, no leaks. Took it for a test drive and its my same old sweet bike. But I don't know if it's just me being nervous or if it sounds mechanically louder. I will ride it easy for a while and find out eh?
Till next time,
Bob